In 1908, Max Martin Fisher is born, and the following year, his father, William, buys a clothing store in Salem, Ohio. Max grows up in Salem, entering high school in 1923 and excelling in football. In 1926, Max graduates high school and enrolls at Ohio State University on a football scholarship. He joins a mostly Jewish fraternity, and when he loses his football scholarship due to injuries, he delivers ice to cover his expenses. In 1930, Max graduates from Ohio State University and moves to Detroit, where his parents and sisters have relocated.

Credit: Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

1931-1953:

Entering the Oil Business

Max is hired by his father as a salesman for Keystone Oil Refining Company plant in 1931. In 1933, Max finds an investor, Henry E. Wenger, for his plan to build a refinery. Max marries Sylvia Krell in 1934, and in the wake of the fuel scarcity in 1938, he makes one of the savviest business deals of his career. Max’s business, the Aurora Gasoline Company, continues its success throughout the 1950s. In 1952, Fisher’s wife Sylvia passes away, and he marries Marjorie Switow Frehling in 1953.

Credit: Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

1954-1961:

An Interest in Philanthropy Combined With Business Success

Max travels to Israel in 1954 on a UJA study mission, piquing his interest in fundraising upon his return. In 1955, Aurora buys out the quarter interest held by Keystone Oil Refining Company, William Fisher’s business. Max becomes more involved in Detroit’s Jewish community, serving as President of the Jewish Welfare Federation and joining a United Jewish Appeal mission to Israel and Europe. On the business front he merges Aurora Gasoline with The Ohio Oil Company, the latter becoming Marathon Oil Company in 1962.

Credit: Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

1962-1965:

Continued Service

Max is very active in helping improve Detroit. In 1964, he becomes President of Detroit’s United Foundation. He also expands his service in the Jewish community, taking leadership positions and running successful fund-raising events. In 1965, he negotiates a $50 million loan from 11 insurance companies to the support the Jewish Agency for Israel, being elected its General Chairman later that year.

Credit: Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

1966-1969:

Increasing His Political Involvement

Max is appointed Chairman of New Detroit in 1968, founded to address the city’s racial tensions that culminated in the riots of 1967. Max’s political involvement increases, as he is named the finance chair for George Romney’s bid to win the Republican Presidential nomination and attends the Republican National Convention as a delegate-at-large from Michigan. Once Richard Nixon wins the Republican nomination, Max works on his campaign.

Credit: Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

1970-1971:

Builder of Bridges

Max’s reputation in Detroit’s business community continues to grow, and politically, he continues to establish himself as an integral link between President Nixon and the Jewish community, helping to ease tensions brought about by Secretary of State William Rogers’ Middle East peace plan. In 1970, Max is a key figure in reaching consensus among the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish American community, and a founder of the Detroit Renaissance in an effort to revitalize inner city Detroit.

Credit: Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

1972-1975:

A Change Of Administrations

In 1972, Max is awarded the Presidential Star for his support and fund-raising in Nixon’s re-election campaign. Max continues to work with the Nixon Administration while the Watergate scandal grows. After Nixon resigns, Max travels to Israel in 1975 to help President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger understand that their goals for Middle East peace were shared by Israeli leaders. Max backs his friend Al Taubman’s purchase of the 73,000 Irvine Ranch.

Credit: Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

1976-1980:

Henry Ford II Honored

In 1976, Max plays a major role in Ford’s re-election campaign, helping him to get 45% of the Jewish vote in an unsuccessful bid for a second term. The Renaissance Center opens, and the Wall Street Journal runs a feature article about Max. He retires as Chairman of the Board of United Brands, and in late 1979, presents his friend Henry Ford II with the first UJA Humanitarian Award.

Credit: Camera Arts Studio

1981-1982:

The Reconstituted Jewish Agency

Max works with Leon Dulzin to solidify the Zionist and philanthropist factions of the Jewish Agency for Israel, and he receives an award from UJA for his role in its reconstitution. His work with President Reagan escalates, as he meets with the President and other Republican leaders to discuss growing anti-Semitism and the sale of AWACS to Saudi Arabia. 1982 brings success for Max’s business holdings, as his ownership in the Irvine Ranch is bought out, and U.S Steel purchases Marathon Oil. His labor of love for the city of Detroit, the Riverfront residential project, breaks ground.

Credit: Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

1983-1987:

Championship Season

1983 is a year of honors for Max. He invests in a professional football team with his friend Al Taubman, which won the USFL championship. In the mid-1980s, Max continues to garner service awards and find success in fundraising. In 1984, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development presents Max with a Certificate of Appreciation for his work in Detroit. On a personal note, he is bar mitzvahed in Jerusalem. His “Fisher Meeting” events raise more than $17 million for the Allied Jewish Campaign.

Credit: Jonathon J. Malhalab

1988-1990:

A Republican Elder Statesman

In 1988, Max and Marjorie honor President Richard Nixon at a private dinner at their home, and Max speaks at the GOP National Convention on behalf of the National Jewish Republican Coalition. President Reagan speaks at a dinner celebrating Max’s 80th birthday. Max continues to lend his expertise to the Presidential office, forming the “No Name Committee” and meeting with President George H.W. Bush to discuss the emigration of Soviet Jews to the U.S. Max is appointed to the President’s Export Council.

Credit: Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

1991-1994:

Quiet Diplomat

In early 1992, Peter Golden’s biography of Max’s amazing life, Quiet Diplomat, is published. The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit opens its headquarters in the Max M. Fisher building, and later that year, Detroit Monthly magazine names Max the second most powerful person in the city. Max’s generosity and philanthropy continue, as he announces a $20 million gift to the Ohio State University College of Business to help construct a multi-building campus to house the renamed Fisher College of Business.

Credit: Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

1997-2005:

“The Amazing Life of Max Fisher”

In July 1998, Max celebrates his 90th birthday with a black tie dinner with friends and family. Later that year, the Jewish National Fund names a 10,000-tree forest outside of Jerusalem in honor of him. At the age of 91, the Detroit News names Max the 2000 Michiganian of the Year. His donation to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra allows them to open the Max M. Fisher Music Center, prompting the Detroit Free Press to run a front page tribute to Max entitled “The Amazing Life of Max Fisher.” In March 2005, Max dies of natural causes at his home in Franklin, Michigan.

1929: William Fisher Moves Family to Detroit

In the Great Depression that succeeded the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, William Fisher lost his business. He moved the family to Detroit and invested in Solaray Sales and Manufacturing Corporation, a friend's lubricating oil company.

1932: Max Fisher Visits Cuba / Keystone Plant Burns Down

After saving a dollar a week in a Christmas club, Max Fisher and friend Joe Falk had enough to visit Cuba in late December 1932, Fisher's first time on an airplane. He returned to Detroit to find the Keystone plant had burned down.

1933: Max Fisher Appeals to Henry Wenger

In 1933, after his father refused his business plan to build a crude oil refinery, Max Fisher took his idea to Henry E. Wenger, founder of Aurora Gasoline Company, who agreed to invest in the business.

1933: Max Fisher Builds Aurora Refinery

1933 and 1934 were transformative years: after Max Fisher secured Henry Wenger's investment, he acquired used equipment from The Ohio Oil Company and land from his father's company, Keystone. Max oversaw the construction of the new Aurora refining plant, which was immediately successful, turning a profit in its first month.

1934: Max Fisher Marries Sylvia Krell

1938: Landmark Handshake Deal with Ohio Oil

In 1938, sensing a bind on oil access, Max Fisher negotiated the deal of his career with James Donnell II of The Ohio Oil Company, offering to pay the posted price for crude oil, an unheard of proposition, for exclusive access.

1942: Aurora Grows During World War II

During World War II, fuel was scarce, but Donnell kept his word and Aurora maintained a crude oil supply from The Ohio Oil Company. By the end of the war, Aurora was among the largest independent petroleum companies in the Midwest.

1967: Six-Day War breaks out in Israel

Israel launches a surpise bombing campaign against Egyptian airfields. After a series of stunning victories, Israeli forces capture control of the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria.

1970: National Emergency Conference on Peace in the Middle East

Max Fisher reads a letter from President Richard Nixon to the National Emergency Conference on Peace in the Middle East in Washington DC. The delegates are concerned that the Nixon Administration, including Secretary of State William Rogers, are becoming pro-Arab. Nixon's letter is well received by the delegation, though tensions among American Jews toward government Middle East policy persist.

1970: Nixon intervenes on behalf of "Leningrad 11"

Max Fisher and Jewish leaders meet with congressmen and Secretary of State William Rogers to discuss the fate of Soviet Jews who are trying to immigrate to Israel. Nixon agrees to meet wth the group and arranges for death sentences hanging over the "Leningrad 11" to be commuted.

1972: Nixon re-elected President

The Presidential Star was awarded to Max Fisher by President Nixon in appreciation for his support in the President's successful reelection campaign of 1972. Fisher raised over $11 million for Nixon's three campaigns in the 1960s and 1970s. Max Fisher was one of the eight original members of Nixon's 1972 re-election committee. He focused on the Jewish vote, which he courted with unprecedented success for a Republican candidate.

1973: Jewish Leaders meet with Nixon on Soviet Jewry

Max Fisher along with fifteen other American Jewish leaders meet with President Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and other members of the administration in the White House. The leaders requested that Nixon ask Soviet party leader Leonid Brezhnev to eliminate the "exit tax" for educated emigrants.

1973: Yom Kippur War begins

It is widely acknowledged that Max Fisher’s role had a profound impact on the outcome of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
In the early days of the war, Israel suffered unprecedented losses as Egypt moved into the Sinai and Syria captured high ground in the Golan. Israel was in desperate need of U.S. military equipment; it had lost 20% of its fighter bombers, a total of 114 planes.
Behind the scenes, Max was in constant communication with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, and Israel’s U.S. ambassador, Simcha Dinitz. They knew that Max understood the gravity of the situation and had powerful contacts within the U.S. government. This was a matter of Jewish survival and he offered a direct conduit to the leadership of the United States government.
Max went to the Oval Office and presented a letter to President Nixon from the Presidents of the Jewish Conference, representing leaders from a number of major Jewish organizations. ”Please send the Israeli’s what they need," Fisher told Nixon. "You can’t let them be destroyed.”
When Fisher left the Oval Office, he went with the certainty that Nixon would resupply the Israelis. This critical intervention became a major turning point in the war.

1975: Irvine Ranch Purchase

In 1975, Max Fisher, with Henry Ford II and others, backed Al Taubman's successful bid for the rights to the 73,000-acre Irvine Ranch in southern California, at the time the largest private real-estate holding in the country.

1975: United Brands Co. Chairman

Max Fisher accepts chairmanship of struggling New York food industry conglomerate United Brands Co. United Brands was facing SEC sanctions for bribing General Oswaldo Lopez of Honduras and other foreign officials. Fisher brought in his friends Seymour and Paul Milstein to help turn the company around.

1977: Renaissance Center opens in downtown Detroit

Fours year following the groundbreaking, downtown Detroit is transformed by a gleaming new development. The Renaissance Center replaced the old Packard warehouse, an abandoned rail yard and a grain silo.

1981: Dropsie University Award

1981: JAI Caesarea Conference

Max Fisher and Leon Dulzin organize the Jewish Agency for Israel's Board of Governors Conference in Jerusalem. Their goal is to solidify the two conlicted factions of the agency: the Zionists and the philanthropists. Fisher delivers an address to the conference attendees titled, "A Start For Change".

1983: Michigan GOP Honors

In 1983, the Republican Party of Michigan honored Max Fisher, who was one of their most important contributors and instrumental in bringing the 1980 GOP National Convention to Detroit. Fisher also received the inaugural Western Michigan Republican Distinguished Service Award.

1984: Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall

1984: HUD Certificate of Appreciation

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development presented Max Fisher with a Certificate of Appreciation for his work in Detroit leading public and private sector cooperation in solving urban problems.

"Max Fisher was presented a plaque commemorating his participation in the United Jewish Appeal's Operation Exodus Campaign Inaugural meeting in 1990, where ""Prominent leaders of American-Jewish communities met in New York City to pledge their commitment and support for Soviet Jews settling in Israel in freedom and dignity."" During this meeting, Max Fisher talked with Walter Annenberg via telephone. Annenberg agreed to donate $15 million to the cause.
"

1990: Richard Nixon Presidential Library

A plaque and certificate acknowledging Max Fisher as a founder of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda California, which was dedicated in 1990, and thanking him for "efforts to preserve the record of the extraordinary accomplishments of the Nixon Administration."

1991: Technion Israel Institute Honorary Doctorate

An honorary degree bestowed upon Max Fisher by the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in 1991, "In recognition of his outstanding leadership and generosity in all areas of Jewish life and his devotion to the advancement of humanity, the Jewish people and the State of Israel."

1998: 90th Birthday Celebrations

A proclamation from the city of Salem, Ohio, Max Fisher's hometown, declaring July 15, 1998, Max Martin Fisher Day. In 1998, celebrations were held around the nation and in Israel in honor of Max Fisher's 90th birthday (including a symphony commissioned in his honor).

1998: Fisher College of Business dedicated at Ohio State University

Ohio State University dedicated the new Fisher College of Business - a multi-building campus made possible by a $20 million donation from Max Fisher. Leslie Wexner, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Limited, honored Fisher with a $1 million donation to establish the Fisher Council on Global Trade and Technology.

2005: Max Fisher Dies at 96

2005: Senatorial Tribute to Max Fisher

In April 2005, less than a month after Max Fisher's death, Ohio Senator George Voinovich addressed President Bush and the senate with an official Tribute to Max Fisher, declaring, "America has lost one of its finest citizens."